Music / ORCHESTRAL / City Of Ghosts

City of Ghosts

for chamber orchestra (additional version available for concert band)

This work was commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for their 2016 Cybec Composers Program. The MSO subsequently programmed it in their 2016 Metropolis Series to be conducted by Robert Spano, who later gave the US premiere of the work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in their 2019 concert season.

City of Ghosts seeks to evoke a sense of the ethereal as it shimmers between different sound worlds and scales of time. As a metaphorical starting point the work was informed by the impression of a deserted city, clouded by fog and rain. There is movement in the shadows, just out of reach; bursts of colour and light bleed through the mist. The orchestration is thick and concealed, the ensemble oscillating between individual aleatoric activity and movement as one entity. The depth of focus is blurred between clouds of obscured sound and brief moments of clarity.

Commission Detail
COmmissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Cybec Foundation

YEAR OF COMPOSITION
2016

Instrumentation
1*.1*.2*.1 - 2.2.1.1 - t+2p - hp. cel. - str. (2.2.2.2.1)
Note: Additional version available for wind orchestra.

Duration
11 minutes

SCORE
Available for hire at the Australian Music Centre.
Wind Band arrangement published at Murphy Music Press.